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Category: A Little Bit from Elaine A Little Bit from Elaine
Published: 10 March 2021 10 March 2021

Editor's Note: Apologies for not posting last week when it was sent. Too many things happening that day!]

By Elaine Carlson

What song lyrics are most often quoted in courts?

That is an almost perfect trivia question because most people can't think of the answer. But then after having been fed the answer most of them will say, "How obvious."

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Blues – is by far the song lyric most often said in courts. It is easy to guess that on every court day somewhere plaintiff attorneys are telling judges and juries, "You don't need a weatherman to know" their client can't walk, is blind or suffers some other malady because of something the person they are suing did.

Early Monday morning I was not in court but in bed when I told myself I didn't need a weatherman to know that it was cold --- very cold.

I decided to get up and head to my computer. I might not have "needed one" but I sure wanted to see the reports prepared by weathermen (or weatherpersons or maybe I should refer to meteorologists). When I got there and after I booted up I went to the National Weather Service website.

I typed in the Zip Code and right away I saw here overnight our low temperature had been predicted to be 26° Fahrenheit. But I could have sworn it seemed colder than that (maybe I should go back and study the record carefully). By then the temperature rose and it was 34° F. I read further and saw that for the day the high temperature would be 56° F.

I didn't log into the National Weather Service to verify that it was cold (I trusted my instincts for that conclusion) but to look at the temperature readings. I wanted those statistics for when I will write to my family in California and tell them how cold it has been here.

And we gotta realize that plaintiff attorneys who might in a rhetorical flourish quote Bob Dylan will go on to have their own weathermen testify---- perhaps structural engineers, medical doctors of all kinds, police officers … or a whole lot of other meteorologist equivalents to prove the fault or liability of a defendant.

It is really difficult to think of other song lyrics that might also be quoted in courts.

The Beatles produced a lot of really good songs, but it is hard for me to think of times you could expect to hear their words being said in any legal fight. Who would possibly think of saying to a judge, "Blackbirds singing in the night"? I doubt anyone would expect different (that is opposing) parties to say to each other, "I want to hold your hand."

When Vincent Buglosi, the prosecuting attorney in the trial of Charles Manson and his followers, later wrote a book about that trial and the Manson Family he gave it the title Helter Skelter --- Yep that is a Beatles song. Perhaps a defense attorney might say "the idea that my client is responsible for a modern day Helter Skelter is absurd." But overall it is difficult for me to think of any other times when that song would be mentioned in a court.

I guess at the end of a trial one side might want to say (or even sing), "Here comes the Sun." What a good way to celebrate a good outcome!

There are a lot of songs' lyrics that would make a visit to court interesting but are words you would never except to hear in a court of law. Who would ever forget hearing a defendant say, "And girls they wanna have fun" (Cyndi Lauper)?

Maybe someone could think of the most inappropriate song lyrics to say to a judge. My nomination for that kind of worst song would be Elvis Presley's, "Take my hand, take my whole life too, but I can't help falling in love with you."

We don't need to limit our discussion to rock music. Someone wanting to making an impression of being a loyal American and very patriotic might want to recite the words in America the Beautiful or from Woody Guthrie's classic, "This land is your land…. ."

I can imagine that if I were in court and everything started to get boring I think there would be nothing better than trying to imitate Lady Gaga and loudly proclaim, "Just Dance!"

During really boring testimony there would be nothing more appropriate (or inappropriate-- depends on your point of view) startling everyone present by stating Johnny Cash's immortal words, "I feel a burning ring of fire. I went down down down and the flames went higher."